Alpena changes docks in Cleveland

Alpena was moved from her winter slip over to the Port of Cleveland Friday to make room for incoming cement boats. G tugs Massachusetts and Minnesota handled the move, with the William C Gaynor assisting once they were over at the port. Winter work is continuing on the Alpena.

Sunken AuSable River Queen back on dry
land, owners hope to return it to service

Published: Mar. 20, 2025, 1:00 p.m.
By Ron Fonger | rfonger1@mlive.com

River Queen pulled from AuSable River. Owners hope to return paddleboat to service

OSCODA TWP, MI — An AuSable River paddleboat that’s offered scenic tours for decades has been rescued from the water eight days after it started sinking.

Oscoda Township Superintendent Thomas Chatel said the AuSable River Queen was towed to dry land on Wednesday, March 19.

“We’re pleased with the high level of cooperation” from agencies that responded to the incident, Chatel said on Thursday, March 20. “The township is looking forward to the vessel being removed as soon as possible.”

Agencies including the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency responded to the area where the River Queen had been partially submerged since March 11.

Absorbent booms were used to surround the paddleboat in an effort to protect the surrounding water from any leaks of oils and gas, an EGLE spokesman told MLive-The Flint Journal last week.

Laurie Rice Bell, one of the paddleboat’s owners, wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday that Michigan State Police divers and area towing and excavating companies protected the River Queen through a difficult rescue.

“We found no obvious reason for her sinking,” Rice Bell wrote. “No damage to the hull so now we are baffled as to why she sank.”

Earlier this week, Rice Bell wrote in another post that owners of the riverboat are still hopeful it can be returned to service.

“For now I’m going to remain steadfast to the idea that we will succeed in pulling her up safely and (bringing) her back to her pride and glory …,” she said. “Please pray for the queen of the Ausable River.”

Rice Bell said in a GoFundMe post in November that her aim was to remove the paddleboat this spring for an inspection of its bottom — a process she expected to cost more than $15,000.

The fundraising effort had raised $9,657 from 66 donors as of Thursday morning, March 20.

A story published by the Associated Press in 2003 said the River Queen was designed after a Mississippi paddle boat, stretching 65 feet in length and 24 feet wide.

The boat is approximately 58 years old and initially featured an enclosed top with no windows on the lower level. It was modified more than 20 years ago to have an open top and windows on the sides for all-weather outings.

Duluth EPA lab’s future uncertain
under plan to cut research arm

DULUTH – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed eliminating its scientific and research arm and up to 75% of its staff, leaving the future of the agency’s Duluth freshwater laboratory and its more than 100 employees uncertain.

The proposal for the EPA to eliminate its Office of Research and Development, first reported Monday by the New York Times, is part of the “reduction in force” plans required throughout the federal government by the Trump administration. The potential cuts were outlined in documents reviewed by Democrats on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.

The ORD includes the Great Lakes Toxicology and Ecology Division laboratory, 6201 Congdon Boulevard in Duluth, which is world-renowned among aquatic scientists for developing scientific protocols used worldwide to measure how toxic chemicals affect the environment.

What these cuts would mean for the Duluth lab is unclear.

A portion of the reduction plan shared with the News Tribune by Science Committee Democratic staff said the EPA planned to “eliminate” the ORD and expected 50-75% of its more than 1,540 positions “will not be retained.”

As of 2021, the Duluth lab employed 136 people, according to the agency.

Reached by phone Wednesday, Dale Hoff, director of the Great Lakes Toxicology and Ecology Division in Duluth, said he couldn’t discuss the future of the Duluth lab. “Anybody who’s read that article knows as much as I do,” Hoff said, referring to Monday’s New York Times article.

During a virtual town hall meeting Tuesday, ORD officials told the EPA’s science and research employees, including those at the Duluth lab, that dismantling the ORD would likely require an act of Congress, according to two people at the meeting.

Political appointees left career ORD officials out of the reduction-in-force discussions, the ORD officials told attendees.

At a separate town hall Tuesday for Center for Computational Toxicology and Exposure sites, which includes labs in Duluth and Durham, North Carolina, employees were told to download and save personnel files, writing samples and anything else they might want from their EPA computer, the two people said.

U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., the ranking member on the science committee, said in a statement that the Trump administration was trying to kill the EPA and the ORD, but that doing so would violate the law.

“EPA’s Office of Research and Development is in statute,” Lofgren said. “Eliminating it is illegal. … EPA cannot meet its legal obligation to use the best available science without ORD, and that’s the point. Donald Trump and Elon Musk are putting their polluter buddies’ bottom lines over the health and safety of Americans.”

U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber, a Hermantown Republican whose district includes the Duluth lab, did not respond to the News Tribune’s request for comment on whether he supports the plan to eliminate ORD or if he is concerned about the potential loss of EPA jobs in his district.

Asked what the plan meant for the Duluth lab, EPA spokesperson Molly Vaseliou said the agency was “taking exciting steps as we enter the next phase of organizational improvements” and that it was “committed to enhancing our ability to deliver clean air, water, and land for all Americans.”

“While no decisions have been made yet, we are actively listening to employees at all levels to gather ideas on how to better fulfill agency statutory obligations, increase efficiency, and ensure the EPA is as up-to-date and effective as ever,” Vaseliou said.

Jack Kelly, who worked as chief of the ecology branch at the Duluth lab from 1998 to 2015, told the News Tribune that EPA’s reduction in force plan targeting the ORD was “really, really upsetting.”

“The country has invested in the training, schooling and development of these people to serve a purpose — protecting humans and the environment,” Kelly said. “There’s been a great amount of money invested in this … to throw that away is beyond ridiculous in my mind.

To him, the lab is a place where methods were developed to track the quality of the Great Lakes, standards were established on pollutants, and new chemicals that come along were evaluated, like PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), commonly known as “forever chemicals.”

“On a personal level, just right away, I object to the not-very-subtle and, frankly, quite ignorant characterization that comes with this,” Kelly said. “My entire life’s pursuit in environmental research and protection is pretty useless and just wasteful spending?”

Kelly said the employees at the Duluth lab work there because they are committed to protecting the environment, even though they could probably make more money elsewhere.

“It’s hard to swallow the idea that you just toss this out with the garbage,” he said.

John Morrice, of Duluth, worked at the EPA lab in Duluth for 15 years as a research biologist studying Great Lakes ecosystems. He retired 12 years ago but worked under both Republican and Democratic administrations.

While Republicans often targeted EPA’s regulatory enforcement side, Morrice said the agency’s science and research arms were largely left alone.

“There is a need to have better science to underpin the establishment and enforcement of chemicals in our waters as part of the Clean Water Act … the (Duluth) lab has set up teams to try to address that need,” Morrice told the News Tribune. “These are ongoing projects that I don’t think universities and academia are really in a position to pick up the slack if the lab were to disappear.”

He cited evaluating and assessing St. Louis River Estuary restoration efforts, creating water criteria for Great Lakes coastal regions, and studying the responses of fish and other organisms to different chemicals among the lab’s “huge successes” over its nearly 60-year history.

Established in 1967, the lab predates the EPA by three years. Its roots go back a few more years.

In 1961, U.S. Rep. John Blatnik, D-Minn., sponsored an amendment to the new Federal Water Pollution Act to create federal water quality labs in key areas of the United States. Blatnik picked Duluth (in his home district) as the Great Lakes site.

Legend has it that a new congressional aide named Jim Oberstar helped pick the site. Oberstar worked for Blatnik and the powerful House Public Works Committee that Blatnik headed. Later, after he was elected to Congress and served on the same committee, Oberstar returned to visit the lab often, extolling its work.

Construction began in 1965 when the lab was under the Federal Public Health Service. By the time it was dedicated two years later, it was part of the Water Pollution Control Administration. It joined the EPA when President Richard Nixon established the agency in 1970.

Most recently, its work focused on developing baseline scientific data/protocol for testing chemical impacts on organisms.

Without the lab, Kelly said, “We’re talking about not just a loss to the scientific community. We’re talking a loss to the population of the United States … they (the Duluth lab) speak to all kinds of issues of how we need to live and protect the environment so that we protect ourselves.”

Duluth News Tribune

Baldwin, other Great Lakes senators
send letter about effects of NOAA cuts

By: Henry Redman – March 20, 2025 12:46 pm

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin and a group of six other Democratic senators representing Great Lakes states sent a letter this week to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) pressing for more information about how staff cuts at the agency will affect programs on the lakes.

The letter, addressed to NOAA Vice Admiral Nancy Hann, asked her to detail the number of people fired at NOAA since she became the agency’s acting administrator, the number of people fired at each Great Lakes-focused NOAA program, the services that will be terminated and her plan to preserve those services.

Baldwin was joined in sending the letter by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Tina Smith (D-MN), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), and Gary Peters (D-MI).

“We write to express our deep concern over the firing of probationary staff at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the potential impact these firings will have on the Great Lakes,” the senators wrote. “The Great Lakes are among the United States’ greatest natural treasures, strengthening our economy and attracting millions of visitors each year. The Lakes provide drinking water to over 30 million people, generate clean hydropower, and generate $3.1 trillion in gross domestic product. National and regional NOAA programs help protect these lakes and support our constituents who call the Great Lakes home.”

Among the NOAA programs that the group is seeking information about are the National Weather Service, National Estuarine Research Reserve System, Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research and Midwestern Regional Climate Center.

In Wisconsin, Lakes Michigan and Superior support 50,000 jobs and provide nearly $3 billion to the state’s gross domestic product, according to a 2024 NOAA report. Last month, Baldwin told the Wisconsin Examiner she’d fight to protect the Great Lakes.

“Wisconsin communities, farmers, and businesses rely on our Great Lakes, and I’ll stand up to any efforts that will hurt them and their way of life,” she said.

Soo Locks open for the new shipping season

UPDATE
Sault Ste Marie, MI –The Soo Locks opened right on schedule Saturday at 8 a.m. with the upbound passage through the Poe Lock of the Clyde S. VanEnkevort/Erie Trader. The viewing platform at the locks was full of visitors celebrating the day as the sun rose behind the tug/barge combo, which is bound for Duluth, MN, to load taconite pellets.

Next to lock up will be fleetmates Dirk S. VanEnkevort/Michigan Trader and Joyce. L VanEnkevort/Great Lakes Trader. Later in the day, Capt. Henry Jackman is expected to lock up headed to Thunder Bay. Algoma Bear is also in Lake Huron headed for Two Harbors.

ORIGINAL REPORT
Three vessels from the VanEnkevort Tug & Barge Inc. fleet arrived at the Soo Locks Thursday, led by the tug/barge combo Clyde S. VanEnkevort/Erie Trader.

The pair tied up at the lower pier in the early afternoon, after which Capt. Eric Sawyer and the crew of the Clyde S. VanEnkevort/Erie Trader welcomed representatives of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the City of Sault Ste. Marie, the Soo Locks Visitor Center Association and the media.

Clyde S. VanEnkevort/Erie Trader will lock up at 8 a.m. Friday when the Soo Locks officially open for the new shipping season.

Crewmembers each received a First Ship baseball cap from the Soo Locks Visitor Center Association, and a mayoral proclamation welcoming the first ship of the season was read. A box of 2025 Know Your Ships books was presented to the crew by publisher Roger LeLievre, who is also a Soo Locks Visitor Center Association board member.

The locks have been closed since Jan. 16 to allow the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers a chance to complete maintenance, something they do annually for about 10 weeks during the winter. During this time, ships are unable to carry cargo between Lake Superior and the other Great Lakes.

Cleveland Cliffs to lay off more than
600 miners on Iron Range

Iron Range, Minn. – More than 600 Cleveland Cliffs employees on the Iron Range are facing layoffs amid news that the company plans to idle both Hibbing Taconite (Hibtac) and the Minorca Mine in Virginia. Cleveland Cliffs’ leaders are blaming the decision on excess pellet inventory due to a drop in the demand for steel.

Minorca Mine will be completely shutting down, laying off nearly all employees, while Hibtac will shrink operations with about half its employees.

United Steel Workers Local 2705 union representative Chris Johnson said it’s a scary and uncertain time for many. “I think it’s every emotion you can think,” said Johnson. ”They have families, they have mortgages, they have whatever gamut of payments they have, and so, yeah, you’re going to get some unemployment, but that’s not going to last forever.”

According to Cleveland Cliffs, the idles are temporary, but there’s no date for when or if employees will return to work.

On top of larger economic factors and the decreased demand for cars, Johnson says those at Hibtac are facing extra uncertainty as the mine is experiencing reserve challenges.“Are these people gonna be called back, or is this what Hibbing Taconite is gonna look like in the future?” said Johnson.

Regardless, he says the layoffs will be devastating. “It’s more the benefits that we have, the pay we get,” said Johnson. “These people count on that. They live their lives by that, and it’s gonna be life changing for some people.”

Johnson added that while Cleveland Cliffs might move some employees to other Minnesota mines, they won’t be able to absorb everyone being laid off. Layoffs at this scale haven’t happened in the Iron Range since 2009 with the exception of those during COVID.

Northern News Now

Enter Duluth’s 42nd Annual First Ship Contest

VanEnkevort tug/barge will open
Soo Locks season at 8 a.m. Friday

UPDATE: Clyde S. VanEnkevort/Erie Trader reported inbound at DeTour at 8 a.m. Arrival time at the locks is unknown due to ice conditions.

Sault Ste Marie, MI – Three vessels from the VanEnkevort Tug & Barge Inc. fleet were headed for the Soo Locks Wednesday after leaving Toledo and winter layup. The tug/barge combo Clyde S. VanEnkevort/Erie Trader was in the lead, followed by Dirk S. VanEnkevort/Michigan Trader and Joyce. L VanEnkevort/Great Lakes Trader.

Clyde S. VanEnkevort/Erie Trader is expected at the locks in the early afternoon Thursday, ice permitting, and will tie up on the lower pier to await the official locks opening at 8 a.m. Friday. The crew will be welcomed by local dignitaries including representatives of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the City of Sault Ste. Marie, the Soo Locks Visitor Center Association and the media.

From 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Friday, the Soo Locks Visitor Center Association will host an open house at the Visitor Center. Roger LeLievre, publisher of the annual Know Your Ships book, will be on hand to sell and sign copies of the 2025 edition. He will be joined by Catherine Schmuck, who is a cook aboard Great Lakes freighters and author of the cookbook “Ship to Shore Chef.”

The locks have been closed since Jan. 16 to allow the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers a chance to complete maintenance, something they do annually for about 10 weeks during the winter. During this time, ships are unable to carry cargo between Lake Superior and the other Great Lakes.

The maintenance finished ahead of schedule so the larger of the locks will open for the season on Friday morning – four days earlier than planned. The Poe Lock, the larger one opening later this week, and the MacArthur Lock, which will open in April.

USCGC Mackinaw arrived in the Soo Tuesday, and locked up to Lake Superior Wednesday to work ice above the locks along with the cutter Spar. The cutters Neah Bay, Morro Bay and Biscayne Bay continued to do track maintenance in the lower river. The Canadian Coast Guard vessel Samuel  Risley was also in the lower river Wednesday evening, hove to with the U.S. cutters for the night.

Also on the move Wednesday was the Herbert C. Jackson, downbound on the Detroit River after leaving winter layup at Detroit. CSL St-Laurent is expected to begin loading grain at Thunder Bay Saturday.

Soo Locks to open Friday for 2025 shipping season

Icebreaking underway in St. Marys River

USCGC Mackinaw arrived in the Soo Tuesday, a few days prior to the opening of the 2025 shipping season. Cutters Neah Bay and Biscayne Bay were working lower river ice. Last week, after doing some initial icebreaking in Thunder Bay, the USCG Spar headed east to Whitefish Bay. Now they are back at Duluth/Superior. The locks are scheduled to reopen at 8 a.m. Friday.

Steve Horton

Sault Ste. Marie wins engineering award for Carbide Dock project

SAULT STE. MARIE, MI – After years of hard work, the city is being recognized for its efforts to rebuild the Carbide Dock and Easterday Avenue truck route.

City engineer David Boyle accepted the Engineering Excellence Award from the American Council of Engineering Companies Michigan on March 8 on behalf of the city and its engineering department.

The Carbide Dock reconstruction project, which wrapped up last year, is one of the largest and most extensive projects in the recent history of the city.

The project was considered a high priority for local and state officials, as the dock and truck route are a significant part of the local shipping industry. Freighters and other ships used to regularly make stops at the dock to make deliveries, but had to stop due to safety concerns when the dock and route fell into disrepair.

After an extensive planning and design process, construction officially began in 2023. In total, the project took around seven years to complete and cost more than $30 million.

City officials said they hope the restored dock and truck route will greatly increase shipping and tourism for the city. For example, having the new dock allows shipments to be brought directly to the city from the Great Lakes instead of being docked somewhere else and then driven in. It also allows for cruise ships and other commercial boats to dock right next to the downtown area.

“We have cruise ships coming to the dock as well, which is super exciting,” said city staff engineer Morgan Kelly. “We already have a bunch lined up to come over next summer. It’s going to hopefully bring in a lot of people to the city.”

Kelly added that the area now includes a park “in addition to the rehabilitated dock and other storage areas. It includes a boardwalk and fishing access, too,” she said.

Kelly also praised the results of the truck route project. Before, the road was in such poor condition that trucking companies would avoid using it even if it cost them more time to use another route. “Easterday was in such poor condition that trucks really wouldn’t want to take it,” Kelly said. “Now we’re in a position where it’s usable and even is a nice, smooth ride.”

The project included replacing or rebuilding 1,100 linear feet of the condemned dock structure to help create the new waterfront. Other construction additions include improved on-site stormwater management facilities.

The dock also has consistent access to energy, meaning it can provide power directly to docked ships. This will allow docked ships to not have to idle while they are parked, which is part of a larger effort to reduce carbon emissions.

The dock and route are already back in use again. This year’s shipment of road salt for the city was brought through the dock. “(The dock is) so important because it provides us a way to access materials easier and quicker and everyone has access to it,” said Kelly.

The Sault News

OBITUARY: Capt. Dino Dini

Capt. Dino Dini, of St. Catharines, ON, passed away Friday, March 14, 2025. He sailed as a captain for Algoma Central for many years, retiring from the Algoma Guardian in July of 2021. Funeral arrangements are pending.

Soo Locks to open Friday for 2025 shipping season

Illinois presses pause on ‘critical’ invasive
carp project, cites federal funding concerns

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Progress on the Brandon Road Lock and Dam is once again at a stalemate, and several local lawmakers are calling on state officials in Illinois to help end delays for the project.

The House Great Lakes Task Force issued a statement to that effect earlier this week. The task force is comprised of lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, including U.S. Reps. Debbie Dingell, D-Ypsilanti, and Bill Huizenga, R-Holland.

“As Co-Chairs of the Great Lakes Task Force, we urge the state of Illinois to promptly sign the necessary documents and end further delays in the critical ecosystem protection construction at the Brandon Road Lock and Dam,” the statement reads. “This project is essential to prevent the spread of invasive carp throughout the Great Lakes. … Failing to do so puts the future of the Great Lakes ecosystem — and the multi-trillion-dollar economy it supports — at serious risk.”

The renovations at the Brandon Road Lock and Dam would prevent invasive carp from making their way from the Chicago Area Waterway System into Lake Michigan. The project has been studied and discussed for more than a decade. Illinois, Michigan and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finally signed a financial agreement last July after years of negotiations.

However, officials in Illinois have once again pressed pause over concerns that President Donald Trump will scale back federal funding.

Beyond Brandon Road: Monitoring 18 other points invasive carp could enter Great Lakes

A spokesperson for Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker told The Detroit News that the governor “agrees this project is critical to the Great Lakes,” but says he is concerned with the White House’s recent trend of slashing federal funding.

Pritzker claims the White House has withheld $117 million in federal grants from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, forcing it to freeze contracts and put nearly 70 other projects on hold.

“Until then, Gov. Pritzker must protect Illinois taxpayers from burdening the liability of the federal government not following through on their promises,” the spokesperson said. “We cannot move forward until the Trump administration provides more certainty and clarity on whether they will follow the law and deliver infrastructure funds we were promised.”

First construction contract awarded on long-awaited $1.1 billion invasive carp project

The project is expected to cost $1.14 billion. The USACE says it is expected to be responsible for $900 million of that, $274 million of which has already been appropriated. Michigan had agreed to contribute $64 million in funding and Illinois would provide $50 million.

As costly as the project may be, the threat of invasive carp could cost even more. Invasive carp — formerly known as Asian carp and also called copi — are considered a major threat to the Great Lakes because they could upend the natural ecosystem. They are voracious eaters and would devour the food sources for several popular Great Lakes fish, including walleye and rainbow trout, key players in the region’s fishing industry.

Invasive carp were used as a tool in the 1970s, controlling algae, weed and parasite growth on aquatic farms. But the fish eventually made their way into the Mississippi River basin and now dominate that ecosystem.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has worked with environmental agencies for years to monitor the fish in the Mississippi River basin and ensure they don’t make it to the Great Lakes. The two systems only have one permanent connection point — the Chicago-Area Waterway System.

There are already tools in place at upstream from the Brandon Road site to target invasive carp, including a federally-funded electric barrier at Romeoville, Illinois, that costs $15 million each year.

WOOD

‘It will lead to a catastrophe:’ U.S. federal job cuts
will harm the Great Lakes, Canadian scientists say

After the United States government fired hundreds of people at the nation’s weather, ocean and fisheries agency last week, Canadian scientists are warning that this will have “catastrophic” effects on the Great Lakes.

The U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, run by billionaire Elon Musk, cut its latest round of employees at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), including technicians who work with Canadian scientists to monitor water quality and levels in the lakes.

“It’s a mission that takes participation from both sides equally and constantly,” said Jerome Marty, the executive director of the International Association for Great Lakes Research and a professor at the University of Ottawa.

“Everything we do in terms of managing the Great Lakes is binational,” he said. “We don’t do one thing on one side of the border and not on the other. Everything is coordinated.”

Several Canadian and American organizations that study and monitor the Great Lakes work together to compile their findings, said Mike McKay, director of the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research in Windsor, Ont.

“I guess this really speaks to an overreliance that we have on some of NOAA’s programs,” said McKay, whose work relies on a collaboration with U.S. coast guards to collect water quality samples and monitor ice conditions in the lakes.

Scientists also collaborate across the border on Great Lakes research around invasive species, flood control and climate change.

“Where we live in Southwestern Ontario, we’re surrounded by the Great Lakes on three sides – that is our world,” said Lake Huron Coastal Centre co-founder Pat Donnelly, adding that the lakes are a source of drinking water, livelihood and recreation for many.

Water safety, fisheries most affected by cuts

With fewer American scientists, Marty said this will cause two main problems for the Great Lakes: less tracking of blue-green algae and a proliferation of sea lampreys.

Blue-green algae blooms pop up in parts of the Great Lakes every spring, said Marty, and they can become toxic to humans and animals who touch or drink the water.

Researchers in the U.S. and Canada work together to monitor algae levels in the lakes to make decisions about limiting access to water at the beach or for drinking.

A man smiles at the camera

They also keep track of sea lampreys, an invasive species that Marty said has harmed over 80 per cent of native fish in some lakes, which in turn affects fisheries. To keep sea lampreys at bay, technicians apply a chemical to streams in the spring to kill their larvae before they can spawn.

“This is not something we do because we think bad things can happen. We do this because bad things have happened already,” said Marty, pointing to a spike in sea lampreys during the pandemic, when researchers were not in the field as frequently.

“There are things we don’t know, but I guarantee that if we pause the monitoring of the Great Lakes and the management that is in place, I am confident that it will lead to a catastrophe and impact humans,” he said.Scientists want more support from both countries

Marty said he wants to see politicians in the U.S. push back against the cuts, especially in municipalities that rely on drinking water from the lakes.

Meanwhile, McKay said he wants to see Canada put forth more funding for Great Lakes management.

“This could be an opportunity for Canada to step up its game,” he said. “I think it follows suit with a lot of other arguments we’re hearing right now about Canada becoming less reliant on the U.S.”

Last year, the federal government pledged $76 million to support 50 projects to restore waterways and coastal areas around the Great Lakes, which McKay said is a good start.

The scientists also emphasize that work on the lakes goes beyond borders.

“The Trump administration is dreaming about walls in the southern border with Mexico, but we can’t have a wall in the Great Lakes,” Marty said.

CBC

Soo Locks to open Friday for 2025 shipping season

Fundraiser launched to restore
Neebish Island Lookout Station #4

Neebish Island Lookout Station #4, located on the mainland across from Neebish Island in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, is a former Coast Guard lookout tower that is now in a state of disrepair, with hopes for restoration through a public-private partnership. 

Lookout Station #4, built in 1908, is located near the mainland ferry dock. With growing vessel traffic passing by Neebish Island, the Coast Guard established several lookout stations on the island and across the river on the mainland. Due to technical automation, only this one lookout station remains standing. The purpose of the stations was to report vessel traffic to the Soo Locks.

This building has become an iconic landmark with a picture of the station often used in Neebish memorabilia.

See the poster in the gallery or find out more here: https://www.facebook.com/people/Shipmates-of-Lookout-4-St-Marys-River-Barbeau-MI/61572991441659/

Soo Locks to open Friday for 2025 shipping season

Republican spending plan in Congress could slow Soo Locks construction project

Washington ― Democratic lawmakers are criticizing the government spending bill in the Republican-led U.S. House for reducing by roughly 44% the funding available for Army Corps of Engineers construction projects next year ― a change that could potentially have consequences for the $3 billion mega project to build a new Great Lakes freighter shipping lock in Sault Ste. Marie.

“I’m very worried about that,” Sen. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, said about sustained funding for the Soo Locks. “If the (bill) passes as it is, certainly there’ll be many projects in Michigan that are going to be negatively impacted by it.” 

Republicans contended Tuesday that the Soo Locks project is such a high priority that it would still receive sufficient funding.

U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman, a Republican whose northern Michigan congressional district includes the locks on the St. Marys River connecting Lakes Superior and Huron, noted the Corps can always reprogram funding from elsewhere.

“I’m not the least concerned about the negative effect on the Soo Locks budget,” Bergman said.

The House voted 217-213 on Tuesday evening to approve the government-funding bill and send it to the Senate, with the Michigan delegation voting along party lines.

The Corps has said it has the capability to spend about $450 million in fiscal 2025 on the Soo Locks project, with pricing on some of the project’s contracted work expiring at the end of September. 

Funding the project at a lower level for 2025 could result in the Corps having to renegotiate pricing for those phases of the project at a higher cost and risk extending the 2030 timeline for completion.

“We would like to see the Soo Lock project get the $450 million it needs to stay on schedule and on budget, but it’s a big lift to get there” from this new funding level, said Jim Weakley of the Lake Carriers Association, which represents U.S.-flagged Great Lakes freighters.

“If the Corps has the discretion, they probably will fund this. But the problem is they’ll have discretion over less money.”

Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Caledonia, said the spending bill provides enough construction funding for the Soo Locks project to be in line with what the Army Corps requested.

“I believe the Corps should make the locks a high priority when utilizing these funds,” said Moolenaar, who sits on the House Appropriations Committee. “I am committed to working with President Trump on building a new lock, as I did in his first administration when he approved the project after 30 years of inaction.”

The Army Corps said it’s too early to say how the Soo Locks project would be affected by the House funding bill, as it’s not clear how much it would be allocated by the Trump administration under the new funding levels.

“Until such time as a bill is passed, and we become aware of what funding is allocated specifically to this project through a work plan, we would not be able to determine any potential impacts to the cost or schedule of the project,” said Carrie Fox, spokeswoman for the Army Corps’ Detroit District.

The funding drop-off is in part a function of using what’s known as a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the government for fiscal 2025, which generally means carrying over the previous year’s funding levels.

The House’s government-funding bill funds the Corps’ construction projects at the same levels as 2024 (about $1.8 billion), but it excludes roughly $1.4 billion that was repurposed last year from the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure bill to supplement the construction account.

The Corps’ construction account would go from nearly $3.3 billion in 2024 to about $1.8 billion under the House’s bill. In Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, has also stressed that the House GOP legislation also excludes explanatory statements that lawmakers use to instruct how money should be spent on specific Army Corps projects.

“Nothing was cut. Last year, (infrastructure bill) balances were repurposed, and those funds don’t exist anymore,” said Alexia Sikora, a spokeswoman for the GOP-led House Appropriations Committee. “Again, these funds were expended for a one-time purpose. The CR provides sufficient funding to continue the Army Corps of Engineers mission and projects.”

Bergman also suggested that Democrats are being misleading by describing the CR as a funding cut. “Basically, there’s stretching of the truth to the point where you might say they were trying to mislead people. I’m not going to say they’re lying. I’m just gonna say their attempt to confuse and mislead has been pretty evident,” Bergman said.

“We’re $2 billion into a $3.3 billion project. So, again, I’m not concerned that this CR is going to have a negative effect on the Soo Locks.”

About $2.2 billion has been allocated to the Soo Locks project to date. The Army Corps’ plans call for a new 1,200-foot-long lock to mirror the only lock at the shipping complex big enough to handle the largest Great Lakes freighters that carry 71% of the tonnage that traverses the waterway connecting Lakes Superior and Huron.

An unscheduled outage of the Poe lock could disrupt the nation’s supply chain for steel, affecting automobile, appliance and heavy equipment manufacturing and, within six months, lead to 11 million lost jobs and $1.1 trillion in economic impact, the government says.

The Army Corps received billions in funding from the bipartisan infrastructure bill during 2023 and 2024, with $693 million helping to fund the Soo project.

In those two years, lawmakers in Congress cut back on their regular annual appropriations because the Corps “had plenty” of funds from the infrastructure bill to spend on construction, Weakley noted.

“What worries me is with a reduced number, the reduction is going to have to come from somewhere, and with the big dollar figure we’ve got for the Soo Locks, someone who is not from our region or who doesn’t understand the project would put less-worthy projects ahead of it,” Weakley said.

Read more at this Detroit News link: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2025/03/11/republican-spending-plan-could-slow-soo-locks-construction-project-sault-ste-marie-michigan-shipping/82279623007/

Soo Locks to open early for 2025 shipping season

Ice-breaking to begin along St. Lawrence
River for upcoming seaway season

Along the St. Lawrence River, there is no surer sign of the approaching spring than the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway navigation season.

The Great Lakes Seaway Development Corp., which manages the U.S. side of operations on the waterway warned residents on the river that ice-breaking operations will start around March 15 in preparation of the navigation season.

This winter there has been significant ice coverage along the entirety of Lake St. Lawrence and the St. Lawrence River between Iroquois and the Eisenhower Lock near Massena, N.Y.

The Canadian Coast Guard announced last month it was beginning ice-breaking operations east of Montréal. No formal announcement from the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp., which operates the Canadian side of the Seaway operations, or from the CCG have been made on ice-breaking operations for this section of river.

The St. Lawrence Seaway will open the Montréal-Lake Ontario section for navigation March 22 at 8 a.m.

The Morrisburg Leader

Soo Locks to open early for 2025 shipping season

Soo Locks to open early for 2025 shipping season